Parents We Mean To Be The

A wake-up call for a national crisis in parenting--and a deeply helpful book for those who want to see their own behaviors as parents with the greatest possible clarity.Harvard psychologist RichardWeissbourd argues incisively that parents--not peers not television--are the primary shapers of their children''s moral lives. And yet it is parents'' lack of self-awareness and confused priorities that are dangerously undermining children''s development.Through the author''s own original field research including hundreds of rich revealing conversations with children parents teachers and coaches a surprising picture emerges.Parents'' intense focus on their children''s happiness is turning many children into self-involved fragile conformists.The suddenly widespread desire of parents to be closer to their children--a heartening trend in many ways--often undercuts kids''morality.Our fixation with being great parents--and our need for our children to reflect that greatness--can actually make them feel ashamed for failing to measure up. Finally parents'' interactions with coaches and teachers--and coaches'' and teachers'' interactions with children--are critical arenas for nurturing or eroding children''s moral lives.Weissbourd''s ultimately compassionate message--based on compelling new research--is that the intense crisis-filled and profoundly joyous process of raising a child can be a powerful force for our own moral development.